50 all-time great romantic movies

It doesn’t quite make sense that a story about a resort dance teacher and his teenaged cha-cha-cha partner would capture the nation’s heart, but it did. No one puts baby in the corner – instead, she’ll get literally swept off her feet in a leaping dance move made all the more romantic by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes’ hit song “I’ve Had the Time of My Life.” The late Jerry Orbach steals his scenes as Baby’s sentimental dad who watches his little girl grow up before his eyes right there on the dance floor.

This beloved rom-com follows a group of college friends who get together for a wedding weekend. The writer in the group, played by Taye Diggs, has penned a novel loosely (or maybe not so loosely) based on the lives of his friends. The book’s contents threaten the upcoming marriage by unearthing secrets from long ago. The group grapples with long-buried feelings and the friendships that bond them. The drama gets brought! You’ll also find relatable characters, funny moments and plenty of romance.

This teen romance is the quintessential tearjerker, so go in ready to cry your heart out. First, you’ll be inspired by the carefree, delicate love that emerges between two teenagers who meet at a cancer support group. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort play the two who bond over illness and also their love of books. They take off on an adventure to meet their favourite author, a cranky old fogey who needs saving himself.

Aubrey Plaza plays a magazine intern following a story about an eccentric inventor (Mark Duplass) who claims he can time-travel. A romance sprouts between the two misfits who struggle to trust each other, due to tragedies in their pasts. The giddy romance comes from watching them take the risk to fall in love – a feat that seems way more complicated and dangerous than taking a ride on a time machine.

If you’ve ever wanted to sing when you just met a girl named Maria (or a paramour of any name) this is the romantic movie for you. It’s a Romeo and Juliet update set in urban alleyways and concrete lots that makes forbidden love a relatable dilemma in any era. Two rival gangs, the Sharks and Jets, rumble over their turfs while a love affair brews between Tony and Maria. Released in 1961, West Side Story uses modern art style, pop colours and jazz as a backdrop for the tragic tale about prejudice told through love.

Jenny Slate stars as a stand-up comic who uses her disastrous love life as material for her routine to varying degrees of hilarity and catastrophe. Jake Lacy stars a sweet guy who keeps showing up in the aftermath of one-night stands. Abby Hoffman plays her bestie, with Polly Walker as her professor mum, in a story where romance springs from the unexpected, contemporary experience of women in a story rarely told.

Marilyn Monroe performs her iconic “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” number in a magenta satin gown that dazzles against a deep red background. Howard Hawks’ musical is a Technicolor miracle drenched in glamorous glitz. The whole thing drips with romance and sizzle, as two showgirls (Monroe and Jane Russell) get wooed on a cruise ship. Prepare yourself for a sumptuous double wedding by the end.

The low-key passion in this tender, tragic love story will move you to the core. Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger play ranch hands sent to tend sheep on an isolated mountain, where they fall for each other. They each marry and go on with their lives, but they can’t let go of their desire and connection, though the world around them demands it. The movie features heartfelt performances and cinematography that captures the ache of forbidden love.

Brief Encounter speaks to everyone who’s ever had a chance meeting or missed connection. This classic black-and-white romantic movie from 1946 makes train stations the ultimate setting for romance as strangers who may be soulmates cross paths. Trains also have a long cinematic history as the location for harrowing, gut-wrenching departures for star-crossed lovers. Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson play two strangers, both married, who share a deep but forbidden love after a chance encounter on a train.

Here are the 10 favourite movies of all time, as voted by you. 

Kumail Nanjiani stars in this rom-com that he co-wrote with his wife (Emily V. Gordon). It’s a story that chronicles their own experiences as an interethnic couple who have to deal with a serious illness that hits at the very beginning of their relationship. Zoe Kazan plays the grad student who falls ill after falling for Nanjiani, a Pakistan-born comedian. The two grapple with differing cultural backgrounds that threaten to pull them apart. The hospital becomes the setting for both a “meet the parents” comedy and sweet, love-conquers-all romance.